USA > New York > New York City > The history of the Broadway tabernacle church, from its organization in 1840 to the close of 1900, including factors influencing its formation > Part 8
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" The remark seemed disagreeable to him and he replied with a spirit and emphasis quite unusual for him,
"' Dominie, I don't know but regeneration, as it is termed, is necessary for some-for me it is unnecessary. I don't know that I have ever intentionally done wrong to God or man.'
" This was an assertion of self-righteousness so bold and unqualified, and unexpected from this mild and amiable gentleman that it almost took my breath away, and simply saying, 'You may yet, my dear sir, see the subject in a different light and my prayer shall be that you will,' I bade him good-morning.
"On the next Sunday evening I preached about the Young Ruler whose good opinion of himself our Saviour disposed of so summarily. I endeavored to hold up a mirror in which all self-righteous men like Mr. Lanphier could distinctly see their moral likeness. For the next Tues- day evening I appointed an 'enquiry meeting' as I knew there were a number in the congregation specially interested in seeking the salva- tion of their souls. When I reached the appointed meeting I was de- lighted to find the room filled and among the first I recognized was * Mr. Samuel G. Smith, Middletown, Conn.
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Mr. Lanphier. He was one of the first I spoke to, and such a sudden and complete change in the moral attitude of a man toward God, I had never before witnessed. From a position of asserted moral inno- cence, of boastful independence of divine grace, he now looked upon himself as so guilty before God and so deserving of the threatened penalty of His holy law that he declared his doubts whether mercy could reach him."
Mr. Lanphier continued for some days in great distress of mind until Mr. Andrews again called at his place of business and proposed that they should go together to his private room above. There they kneeled together, and while the pastor prayed, deliverance came, and "the sight of the Cross eased him of his burden."
Mr. Andrews's endowments, as a preacher, were many and remarkable. His external charms of face, voice, and action are described as fascinating; his style was clear, direct, and forceful. A highly intelligent listener characterized his ad- dresses as "imposing oratory." All testimony that can be collected at this late day is uniform as respects the power of Mr. Andrews to attract and delight great congregations. A writer in a suburban newspaper said of a religious lecture delivered by him when he was past seventy, that at times it "reminded some of his audience of the eloquent young preacher who, over forty years ago, drew crowds to hear him at the Broadway Tabernacle." A series of Pulpit Sketches appeared at that period in the New World, a literary weekly edited by Park Benjamin, Epes Sargent, and R. W. Griswold. In the twenty-fourth number of the series may be found the following contemporaneous judgment:
" We were astonished to hear Mr. Andrews, a young man apparently about five-and-twenty,* address an audience of four thousand people at the Tabernacle, in a style of thought and language not often equalled by sexagenarian doctors. . Mr. Andrews is evidently conscious of his
high responsibilities; he speaks what he feels. Whatever he treats, he treats with the confidence and success of a master. Juvenis annis, scientiâ senex, he merits the highest commendation which it is in our power to bestow."
* He was twenty-nine when installed.
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The Tabernacle would hold, though it could not seat, some- what more than 3,000, but the crowds that surged into the building filled the seats, and eager listeners stood thronging the aisles. Particularly was this true when the seven Sun- day evening lectures on the Second Advent were delivered in 1843. Mr. Andrews was an ardent advocate of the doctrine that Christ's Second Coming will precede the Millennium. "He preached much on Daniel, and expounded the Prophecies," says one of his old hearers; and the New York Herald stated with reference to the last of these popular discourses that " ten thousand people tried in vain to get into the already over- crowded building." One evidence of popularity, particularly gratifying to the preacher, was given when members of sev- eral Presbyterian churches took pews in the Tabernacle for use at the evening service.
But the church was growing in other directions also. In 1840, when the Sunday-school was formed in the lecture-room, there were three or four teachers and twelve scholars; * but the number soon increased so that in a little more than eigh- teen months there were about fifty teachers and nearly two hun- dred and fifty scholars, inclusive of the members of seven Bible classes. Deacon Pitts's class has already been noticed ; Mr. William W. Fessenden had the Woman's Bible Class " for Mutual Improvement," with forty members. But this was not all, for at the same time there were six mission schools, held in different parts of the city, the superintendents and many of the teachers of which were members of the church or congregation.
At that date few of our churches were conscious of their responsibility for the spread of the Gospel. Individual church members realized it, and missionary societies were formed, but few churches had any organized scheme for contributing to Christian work outside of the support of the Gospel ordi- nances for their congregations. In March, 1841, a plan for the distribution of the charities of the church that included collections for the American Board and the New York Sun- * History of Broadway Tabernacle Church, 1846.
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day-school Union was presented to the church, but action upon it was postponed. The matter was taken up again in November, and then laid on the table, the church voting that it was "inexpedient that public contributions should be taken up on the Sabbath for any other purpose than the support of public worship and Christian ordinances in this church and congregation." And so the long-handled wooden contribution boxes were passed and thrust to the farthest end of each pew that every penny might be collected for the support of the ordinances of their own church. These Sabbath collections for meeting current expenses continued for many years. No doubt the weight of their obligations to Mr. Hale made the church eager to secure all possible gifts toward the cancelling of that indebtedness, but the strong motive that produced this action was the wish to prevent the church in those days of benevolent enterprise from pledging itself to become the ad- junct of any altruistic organization. The church should be free to give or not, when and how it pleased, and no cast-iron rules should bind it to contribute regularly to any cause, espe- cially as the church was not at one as regards the attitude of the leading societies of the day toward slavery; and the Congregational churches had not then, as now, their own denominational charities. The preamble and resolutions adopted at this time * show that the church did not wish to cut itself off from all Christian benevolence, for the pastor was requested to use his best judgment in bringing before the congregation the claims of Christian charity. Four years later, in July, 1845, the church adopted a resolution authoriz- ing the committee of the church to cause a contribution to be taken up at the close of the service whenever objects had been presented for the consideration of the congregation. That the church was not indifferent to the cause of missions is shown by the fact that as early as 1844 a well-sustained Sunday - school missionary society was organized, and the women of the society were supporting a home missionary in the West.
* Appendix D.
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Another circumstance, entered in the church records, marks the conservatism of Mr. Hale. When in May, 1843, Mr. Will- iam G. West, a strong advocate of total abstinence principles, offered a resolution that the deacons procure unfermented wine for communion use, Mr. Hale moved that the resolution be indefinitely postponed, and his motion was promptly car- ried.
The prayer-meeting, during those early years, was held on Monday evenings. It was voted, December 20, 1842, that all matters of church business were to be transacted soon after the beginning of the meeting, instead of at the close; and, early in 1842, it was agreed that a collection should be taken up at the prayer-meeting every second Monday evening, for the benefit of the Sunday-school. At the annual meeting, Feb- ruary, 1844, the prayer-meeting was changed from Monday to Tuesday evening, except that, on the first Monday of the month, the monthly concert of prayer for the conversion of the world took the place of the regular church prayer-meeting. The dates of the communion service were also changed, the first communion of the year being on the first Sunday of Jan- uary instead of February, and so continuing on the alternate months through the year.
Early in 1844 a project of forming a Congregational Union was started by some churches in the vicinity, and the Taber- nacle Church was invited to join the enterprise. The prin- cipal features of this union, as proposed, were that it should act as an advisory body, and be a council for the purpose of taking into consideration all matters pertaining to the welfare of the churches, which might demand its attention-with the design of promoting harmony and intercourse among the churches-communicating information respecting the state of religion within its bounds, devising means and measures for advancing the interests of Christ's kingdom, and producing a more extensive co-operation in every good work. The ques- tion of joining this union was elaborately discussed at several meetings held for the purpose; and the measure was strenu- ously advocated by some, on the ground principally of the sup-
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posed urgent necessity for some plan of union and co-opera- tion between the Congregational churches in the vicinity of New York. Mr. Hale insisted that the union " should be for- ever debarred from exercising any ecclesiastical authority whatever." Other objections urged were that such organiza- tions were unscriptural, uncongregational, unnecessary, and likely to lead to controversies and dissensions not only among but in the churches, and, finally, that uniting with the pro- posed Union would be in direct contravention of the first declaration of this church as to the design of a Christian church. The church took no action as to joining the Union because of this diversity of opinion. This was nine years be- fore the formation of the American Congregational Union, in which the Tabernacle Church was most actively engaged.
It was early in this same year, January 29, 1844, that the second strong Congregational church of Greater New York, the Church of the Pilgrims, was formed in Brooklyn, partly at the instance and through the influence of Mr. Hale, who contributed $2,000 toward the church building that was then put up on the corner of Henry and Remsen Streets at a cost of $65,000. What this church became under the brilliant min -. istry of Dr. Storrs, it is needless to say, or how it supplied the friends of Congregationalism with another powerful argu- ment. Seven other Congregational churches, those of Dr. Cheever and Henry Ward Beecher being among them, were established in the two cities during the first five years of Dr. Thompson's pastorate, to all of which Mr. Hale contributed generously, but the Church of the Pilgrims would hardly have been formed, nor would the Congregational movement have gathered such force, but for the phenomenal growth of the Broadway Tabernacle Church under Mr. Andrews's ministra- tions. In a short notice of him, which appeared after his death, he was described as the founder of the Broadway Tabernacle. With equal reason he might be called the "Father of Con- gregationalism in Greater New York." In fact, both titles, if they belong to any man, belong to the devout, unselfish, energetic, patient, clear-headed, free-handed layman, David
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Hale. But he could not have dispensed with the help which he received from both the ministers with whom he labored, and no one of the three men is in need of any borrowed honor.
But Mr. Hale and Mr. Andrews were ill fitted to be yoke- fellows. Mr. Andrews, a conservative to the core, too easily thought Mr. Hale a radical, which in most respects he cer- tainly was not. Mr. Hale believed that "a house " (includ- ing the house of worship) is a place for special convenience for men, not for special presence of God; * that a place could not be desecrated by any use not in itself sinful and the Tab- ernacle, for which Mr. Hale had assumed such heavy obliga- tions and for which he neither sought nor received any pecuniary advantage, might lawfully be used as a place of amusement on week-days so that it might continue to be a place of worship on Sunday. As an illustration of the annoy- ance this use of the audience-room sometimes made the church, Mr. Samuel G. Smith, of Middletown, Conn., recalls an exhibi- tion of laughing gas given in the Tabernacle "which caused great merriment, cheering, and stamping of feet from the audience. At this stage Mr. Hale came up from below, and with a very graceful bow congratulated them upon the suc- cess of the exhibition; he then continued: 'There is a meet- ing, a religious meeting below, and will you manifest your approval and enjoyment by just a clapping of the hands ' (suit- ing the action to his words) 'and not by stamping on the floor.' Then with another graceful bow he withdrew, amid cheers." The editor of the New York Herald, Mr. Bennett, whose friendly gibes at Mr. Hale's expense, represented him with pockets lined with gold from his speculation in church property, made this another occasion to blaspheme. It was during this year, in the political campaign of Clay and Polk, that a meeting of such Democrats as opposed the annexation of Texas, but yet supported Polk, was held in the Tabernacle. The meeting, which was addressed by David Dudley Field, William Cullen Bryant, and others, was broken up by the infa- mous Captain Rynder's rowdies and heelers. It is not sur-
* Memoir, p. 324.
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prising that some, besides Mr. Andrews, were disturbed by Mr. Hale's way of carrying out his theory, and vigorously opposed it.
Other personal reasons conspired to induce Mr. Andrews, after about three and a half years of ministerial service in New York, to ask for release from his charge. This he did July 30, 1844, and, his resignation having been accepted, he was formally dismissed by a mutual council on August 14th. He preached his farewell sermon Sunday morning, August 18th. He left to his successor a strong, united, and highly influential church, and he had made it impossible to regard Congregationalism any longer as a hazardous experiment in New York.
Mr. Andrews's after-life was a varied one. In December, 1844, he became pastor of the Second Street Presbyterian Church in Troy, N. Y., where he remained until May, 1848. He then established a boys' boarding school (the Alger Insti- tute) in his father's old parish of South Cornwall, and had under his care many sons of his former parishioners in Troy and New York. Before the close of 1853 he had disposed of his school, and, in New York City, resumed the practice of the law, which had always attracted him strongly. He be- came also an active politician, and until almost the close of his life was in much request as a political speaker. When the Civil War broke out he entered the army, became the Chief of Staff to General Morris, commanding the defences of Balti- more, and held the rank of colonel. After the war he was a lawyer and editor in West Virginia, and later practised law in Michigan. As early as 1870, when not quite sixty, he be- gan once more to labor as a preacher and had charge of a Union Church in Michigan, though obliged to continue law practice to support his family. After the winter of 1875-76, when he found his religious life greatly quickened and up- lifted, he availed himself of every opportunity to preach. But most of his work, and probably his best, was done as an evangelist, especially in West Virginia, where his success was remarkable, and where he gained a battle with "organized
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infidelity." In this capacity he had full scope for what re- mained of his old eloquence. After 1885 the burden of years and attacks of illness made labor in either profession less practicable. In 1888 he had temporary charge of a small Pres- byterian church in Fairfax County, Va., and he continued to preach when he could to the end. His conservatism was still intense, not only in theology but in politics, and, though suf- fering from disease, disappointment, and straitened circum- stances, he still trusted in God and clung firmly to the blessed hope of his Lord's Return. He died at Norwood Park, Chi- cago, September 2, 1895, in the house of his youngest sur- viving child, Mrs. Merwin-Marie Snell. Mr. Andrews pub- lished comparatively little, though many of his sermons and addresses were reported by the press. He married, October 9, 1834, Mary Le Baron Gilbert, of Fair Haven, Vt. Of their eleven children, two sons, Captain Edward Watson Andrews, and Warren Parkhill Andrews (both soldiers in the Civil War), and Mrs. Snell, alone survive.
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CHAPTER V.
THE SECOND PASTOR, JOSEPH P. THOMPSON.
IT was the middle of August, 1844, when Mr. Andrews was dismissed, and there was an interim of eight months before the installation of his successor. This period might have been a most trying one. Many members of the church and society were tenderly attached to Mr. Andrews, and it was questioned whether their loyalty to the Tabernacle Church would bear the strain of his loss. But the church remained united; few left, and additions continued at each communion season. The pul- pit was supplied much of this time by the Rev. John S. C. Abbott, a man of rare Christian character and literary attain- ments, whose pulpit talks, given in a simple conversational style, always interested his hearers.
The church observed a day of fasting and prayer on No- vember 28th, and on December 10th both church and society met to elect a pastor.
David Hale had heard of a young minister in New Haven, had made inquiries concerning him, and at his suggestion Mr. Thompson was called to be the pastor of the Tabernacle Church. Fifty votes were cast by the church members present, all but one (blank) being for Mr. Thompson. The society concurred with the church in offering a salary of $2,000.
Joseph Parrish Thompson, son of Isaac and Mary Ann Thompson, was born in Philadelphia, August 7, 1819. On his father's side he was of sturdy New England stock. His mother descended from a family of Covenanters driven to the North of Ireland from Scotland by a storm of persecution. His earliest ancestor in this country, John Thompson, was one of the first settlers in Stratford, Ct., who came from London in 1635. Dr. Thompson himself relates the well-preserved family
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THE SECOND PASTOR, JOSEPH P. THOMPSON
tradition that this pioneer came first to see the country and then went back to England in order to settle affairs in the old home and remove permanently to the new. While journeying on a by-road he was detained by a farmer, who had learned of his travels in the New World, that he might break bread with him and give the news. The traveller told his strange tales of a wild land full of savage beasts and savage men, but added, joyfully, that he should go back, nevertheless, as there he could serve God as seemed to him right. At that, Mirable, one of the farmer's three daughters, cried out, "Then would I were there!"
" But could you," asked the young man, " for the sake of Christ, endure the trials and perils of that far-off coast?"
"Yea, gladly, by God's help," replied the Puritan maiden who, not long before, had suffered the shame of the pillory for worshipping with Separatists. When John Thompson re- turned to Stratford, Mirable came also as his wife. The line of descent from him was Ambrose (1652), John (1680), John (1717), William (1742), Joseph (1769), Isaac, father of Joseph Parrish.
William Thompson (1742) was a lieutenant under General Wooster; he fell at Ridgefield, Ct., April 27, 1777 .*
His great grandson, Joseph Parrish Thompson, graduated from Yale College (1838) and began theological study at An- dover, Mass., continuing his studies in the Yale Divinity School. He had not completed his second year of theological study, nor had he attained his majority, when he received a call to Chapel Street Congregational Church (the Church of the Redeemer), in New Haven, not without the advice of his instructor, Dr. Taylor.
" He delayed a written answer to the call till after his birthday be- cause of a question in his mind whether before that day he was legally competent to bind himself by a contract with the ecclesiastical society. He entered upon his work with the eager enthusiasm of a gifted boy and with the steady strength of a well-trained man." t
* Joseph P. Thompson, The Sergeant's Memorial, 1863, p. 14.
t Leonard Bacon, D.D., New York Independent, Sept. 25, 1879.
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He won a large place in the hearts of his people and of his ministerial brethren in the city. When the call to New York came, his New Haven friends protested against his going ; and well they might, for he already gave promise of what his multifarious work might be.
Mr. Thompson's form was slender, his smile sunny, his face radiant. His eyes sparkled and his frequent laugh was whole- some. He was quick to recognize acquaintances and to find out the strangers in his congregation. His sermons were writ- ten, and were clear, argumentative, convincing, giving his hearers food for future thought. He instructed rather than aroused his hearers. Yet as a platform speaker, when his own feelings were moved, he rose to eloquence and awoke the en- thusiasm of his audience. He was a scholar of multiform interests, with ready insight, a broad outlook, and wise judg- ment. Few men have had a keener scent for knowledge or a deeper craving for omniscience. For a student, New Haven was an ideal residence. But Mr. Thompson had been city born and bred, and he believed heartily in the common people and wished to work for them. The Tabernacle Church had at that time three hundred and twenty members, flourish- ing Sunday-schools and Bible classes, and a congregation of 2,000.
Doubtless the general scepticism as to the hopefulness of Congregational enterprises west of New England, and the fear that, since Mr. Hale owned the Tabernacle, it might prove to be a one-man church, influenced him to decline the invitation. Deacon Pitts, who was one of the committee to present it, wrote an urgent letter which Dr. Thompson afterward pub- lished. In it he said : *
" I know of no field of ministerial labor more inviting, encouraging immediate efforts for the conversion of sinners. There are already some quite serious individuals, with one case of distressing conviction for sin. There appears an unusual readiness on the part of the im- penitent to listen attentively to personal conversation on the subject of religion. Our dear church has never been more harmonious than at present, and greater unanimity in making the call for you to become
* The Good Man's Memorial, pp. 47-50.
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THE SECOND PASTOR, JOSEPH P. THOMPSON
our shepherd could not be possible; not a negative vote appeared in the church, and but one in the congregation, and that by mistake. I consider it a Macedonian entreaty, as directly emanating from the Great Head of the Church as the one sent the apostle.
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" Our church commenced with earnest prayer accompanied with a day of fasting, imploring Divine guidance in the selection of the right one to preside statedly over our interests. As an individual, my exer- cises and views have been peculiar when before the mercy-seat be- seeching our Saviour to grant the favor our destitution demands. I have most devoutly and solemnly pledged myself before the Searcher of all hearts, to sustain you with more than ordinary devotedness to the interests of a pastor; for any one in this position requires more sympathy and prayer than is often felt and offered for pastors of churches. Could I see you and unite in prayer with you over this subject, it would greatly relieve my burthened soul. . . I have made myself thus prominent in this communication by the particular request of my brethren.
" My brother, if I am at all thought of in making up your final conclusion, I can safely assure you of my affections, and engage with a most ready mind to stand by you, and sympathize with you in all the trials and conflicts you may be called to encounter. For it is a great work to which you are called-none other than a Nehemiah enterprise. O my brother, may we not hope that the God of Israel will grant a Nehemiah's victory over all the obstacles which may be delaying your decision."
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